Jim McNeely, The Frankfurt Radio Big Band, Barefoot Dances and Other Visions (Planet Arts) McNeely fortifies his position in the upper echelon of jazz arrangers in this set of new pieces for the formidable Frankfurt Radio Big Band. The album begins with his tribute to the late Bob Brookmeyer, “Bob’s Here.” Despite the dedication to the iconic player of the instrument, Christian Jaksjö manages to be himself on valve trombone. Indeed, all of the Frankfurt BB soloists—too many to name in a brief … [Read more...]

Lilian Terry, Dizzy Duke Brother Ray And Friends (Illinois) Lilian Terry’s book is full of anecdotes about her friendships with the musicians mentioned in the title—and dozens of others. Enjoying modest renown in Europe for her singing, Ms. Terry has also been involved in radio and television broadcasting and is a cofounder of the European Jazz Federation. Her activities brought her in close contact with Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. She conducted extensive interviews … [Read more...]

Oscar Peterson Plays (Verve) In this five-CD reissue, the formidable pianist plays pieces by ten composers who dominated American popular music for decades. Peterson had bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Barney Kessel, succeeded by Herb Ellis. It's the trio that made Peterson famous with Jazz At The Philharmonic and--by way of the 10 albums reproduced here--on juke boxes and radio stations everywhere, when jazz was popular music. Among the songwriters are Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Duke … [Read more...]

The DIVA Jazz Orchestra 25th Anniversary Project (ArtistShare) It has been a quarter of a century since Buddy Rich’s manager and relief drummer Stanley Kay found himself conducting a band whose drummer was young Sherrie Maricle. Intrigued by her playing, Kay set out to find whether there were other women jazz musicians of comparable talent. There were. DIVA was soon born and has been an important big band ever since. Its longtime leader, Maricle has booked the band into Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola … [Read more...]

Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette, After The Fall (ECM) In 1998 Keith Jarrett was emerging from a siege of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that had sidelined him for two years. As he felt better, he was uncertain how completely his piano skill and endurance had returned. He decided to test himself. He gathered his longtime Standards Trio members—bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette—for trial runs, then decided on the challenge of a concert. In his album notes Jarrett writes … [Read more...]

Gerhard Kubik, Jazz Transatlantic, Vol. I and Vol. II (University Press of Mississippi) The first volume of Kubik’s work is subtitled, “The African Undercurrent in Twentieth–Century Jazz Culture;” the second, “Jazz Derivatives and Developments in Twentieth-Century Africa.” The descriptions indicate the depth and scope of the Austrian ethnomusicologist’s research, which has taken him to Africa every year for nearly five decades. Happily for the general reader, Kubik’s writing and explanations … [Read more...]

Roberto Magris Sextet Live in Miami @ the WDNA Jazz Gallery (J Mood) Widely experienced and recorded in Europe, pianist Magris demonstrates in this club date that he knows how to reach an American audience steeped in Latin and Caribbean music. The front line has trumpeter Brian Lynch at his fieriest, and the imaginative young tenor saxophonist Jonathan Gomez. The Miami-area rhythm section is the veteran bassist Chuck Bergeron, drummer John Yarling, and Murph Aucamp playing congas. The album … [Read more...]

Andy Sheppard, Romaria (ECM) The title tune, written and first recorded by the Brazilian Renato Teixeira, was made still more famous by the singer Elis Regina’s 1977 recording. It has been a beloved standard song in Brazil for four decades. British saxophonist Sheppard and his quartet hew to the spirits if not the letters of Teixeira’s and Regina’s versions. Guitarist Elvind Aarset manipulates electronics to create atmospherics that expand the quartet’s harmonies. If that raises warnings for … [Read more...]

Dawn Clement, Tandem (Origin) Dawn Clement’s recording history includes piano collaborations with saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and trombonist Julian Priester, among other prominent colleagues. The Seattle Times has called her, “The leading Seattle keyboardist of her generation.” Trumpeter Ingrid Jensen calls her “…an eternal gift to the music.” Clement’s discography as a leader is growing, and this addition will almost certainly bring her increased attention. Tandem’s series of ten duets pairs … [Read more...]

Jeff Sultanof, Experiencing Big Band Jazz: A Listener’s Companion (Rowman & Littlefield) The scope of jazz played by large ensembles is vast, but the clear-thinking scholar-musician Jeff Sultanof compresses its century-long history into a 200-page book. He accomplishes that feat by leading readers through big band music and its makers almost as if he had us by the hand. He does so by presenting musical examples that are part of the digital world in which most of us live. He explains on an … [Read more...]

Marilyn Crispell, Raymond MacDonald, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay: Two Duos, Three Trios (Bruce’s Fingers) The daring American pianist Marilyn Crispell’s free jazz adventures have more than once been compared to volcanic activity. Here, Crispell joins the Scottish saxophonist Raymond MacDonald and the French-Canadian bassist and electronic adventurer Pierre Alexandre Tremblay. The project’s tectonic aspects alternate with moments so peaceful that they sometimes verge on the soporific—but not for … [Read more...]

  Director Étienne Comar’s Django portrays guitarist Django Reinhardt’s life during two years when it seemed that Europe might fall to Germany. His account emphasizes the greatness of Reinhardt’s music and the Nazis’ recognition of his extensive popularity. They coerce his collaborationist lover to persuade him to play in Berlin. Reinhardt chooses instead to escape to neutral Switzerland. In real life, his escape effort failed and he was returned to Paris. Reda Kater is credible, if … [Read more...]

Michael Stephans, Experiencing Ornette Coleman (Rowman & Littlefield) When Ornette Coleman (1930-2015) became prominent in the late 1950s, critics almost invariably described him as “iconoclastic.” In his invaluable history and appreciation of the alto saxophonist, Michael Stephans reminds us that Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie made departures as dramatic as Coleman’s and each was charged by the establishment of his time with … [Read more...]

Dave Brubeck & Carmen McRae, Tonight Only (Columbia) What would the Rifftides staff do without readers who keep us informed and on track? The always-alert Svetlana Ilicheva sent a note from Moscow about Tonight Only, a 1961 encounter of the Dave Brubeck Quartet and Carmen McRae. It was recorded in a New York club before a chattering audience of non-listeners.  It has fascinating moments. One track, “Melanctha,” is a Brubeck song with a lyric by his wife Iola. It was evidently inspired by … [Read more...]

Lisik and Allen, 50 Years At The Village Vanguard (SkyDeck) Dave Lisik and Eric Allen tell the story of The Vanguard Orchestra and its predecessors. In a huge book illustrated with hundreds of images, they trace the orchestra from its creation by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis through decades of music that has set standards to which big jazz bands everywhere aspire. Laced with commentary and comments by current and former band members and written with admirable continuity, the book illuminates how, … [Read more...]

The Complete Blue Note Hank Mobley Fifties Sessions (Mosaic) Mobley (1930-1986) personified what was right with the music and wrong with the culture in jazz in the 1950s. The resonance of his tenor saxophone sound and his gifts of melodic inventiveness and harmonic acuity made him a consistently rewarding improviser. Heroin addiction undoubtedly spurred his early death. From his  beginnings with Max Roach and Dizzy Gillespie through his brilliant series of Blue Note albums in the 1960s, … [Read more...]

To the best of the <em>Rifftides</em> staff’s recollection, this is the first time the blog’s Monday Recommendation has been a stand-alone video. The choice was inspired by the stellar makeup of the band involved, the enjoyment the musicians found in playing one of Benny Golson’s most loved compositions and how they made it obvious that they were digging one another’s work. Golson (pictured left) is the tenor saxophonist and leader with Art Farmer, flumpet; Niels-Henning Ørsted … [Read more...]

Fred Hersch, Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In and Out of Jazz (Crown Archetype) Hersch tells his life story with power and resoluteness as natural as his piano playing. Left by his affluent parents to largely invent himself, he adjusted to his urgent musical impulses and, with difficulty, to the gayness that left him doubtful and confused until he accepted it. From teenaged years plagued with painful shyness and occasional bullying he emerged to become a competent creative musician, then … [Read more...]

I Called Him Morgan, A Film by Kasper Collin (FilmRise) Swedish filmmaker Kasper Collin’s documentary recounts the exhilaration and tragedy in trumpeter Lee Morgan’s short life. He tells the story of Morgan’s rapid rise, his wife Helen rescuing him from the ravages of addiction, and his death at 33 when she shot him. Collin’s melding of rare film clips, audiotape and minimal narration is an ingenious use of slight source material. Before she died in 1996, Helen recorded essential parts of the … [Read more...]

Gary Peacock Trio, Tangents (ECM) If the seasoned listener heard “Blue In Green” and the love theme from “Spartacus” first, the trio’s evocative approach could lead him to anticipate a collection inspired by the legacy of Bill Evans. But the album ranges further and wider. Peacock’s bass is at the sonic and emotional center of this second release by his trio. His 31–year collaboration with pianist Keith Jarrett and drummer Jack DeJohnette ended when Jarrett disbanded in 2014. Interaction … [Read more...]

Michelle Lordi, Dream A Little Dream (Michelle Lordi.com) Ms. Lordi is a Philadelphian who for the most part remains in her native city and works with a cross-section of excellent musicians. She has superb taste in songs from times when stage, screen and radio encouraged quality popular music. In some respects her new album is refreshingly reminiscent of the LP era. It is made up of seven tracks and runs just short of a half hour. The brevity has the effect of calling special attention to the … [Read more...]

John Patitucci, Irmãos De Fe (Newvelle Records) Bassist Patitucci’s love affair with the music of Brazil is beautifully expressed in this collaboration with percussionist Rogério Boccato and guitarist Yotam Silberstein. A veteran of the Los Angeles jazz milieu, Patitucci caught the Brazil virus when he studied with percussionist Airto Moreira and began absorbing music by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Egberto Gismonti, Chico Buarque and others who in the 1960s helped launch the new wave of Brazilian … [Read more...]

Bill Charlap Trio, Uptown Downtown (Impulse) Pianist Charlap’s trio dazzles the listener from beginning to end of this album. He, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington do not bowl us over with flurries of technique, speed and high volume. They do it with musicianship, subtlety and the cohesiveness that has intensified during their two decades as one of the most compelling of all jazz piano trios. A few of the large and small delights: •The musicians’ uncanny togetherness on … [Read more...]

Tommy Smith, Embodying The Light: A Dedication To John Coltrane (Spartacus Records) Fifty years ago in the aftermath of John Coltrane’s death, it would have seemed unlikely that a definitive tribute to the saxophone master would someday come from a Scottish tenor player. Yet, so universal is Coltrane’s presence in jazz and so deeply has Tommy Smith absorbed and incorporated his lessons that Smith’s tribute album is an important achievement and a moving listening experience. His rhythm section … [Read more...]

Jeroen de Valk: Chet Baker, His Life And Music (Aspekt) de Valk has revised his 2000 biography of the trumpeter. The new version includes a comprehensive index that is helpful to readers. It has a selection of new photographs of Baker on the bandstand, with family, and in times of trouble growing out of the heroin addiction that more than once made him a subject of sensational news coverage. de Valk emphasizes that the musician did not consider drugs a problem; to him they were simply a part … [Read more...]

Bill Evans, Another Time, Resonance For years, it was thought that drummer Jack DeJohnette’s only recorded appearance with the Bill Evans trio was at the 1968 Montreux Jazz Festival. Then in 2013, producer Zev Feldman discovered that five days after Montreux, Evans, DeJohnette and bassist Eddie Gomez recorded privately for the owners of the MPS studio in Villengen, Germany. Negotiations for rights led to the 2016 release by the Resonance label of Some Other Time, a double CD from the MPS … [Read more...]